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George W. Bush is sticking by his promise to leave President Obama alone, prompting second-guessing by allies of Dick Cheney.
AP photo composite by POLITICO

Former President George W. Bush is sticking by his promise to leave President Barack Obama alone — prompting some second-guessing by allies of Vice President Dick Cheney, who is determined to confront the new president.

Bush has stuck to his memorable declaration that he owes Obama his silence, while Cheney continues to grant colorful interviews in which he warns that the Democrat’s policies are making the country less safe.

One Cheney supporter referred to “confusion” and “bewilderment” among conservatives that Bush has not taken the same tack.

“A lot of conservatives would have like to have heard from President Bush on this issue,” the Cheney supporter said. “On such a fundamental issue, when such clear untruths are being told, conservatives have wondered why President Bush has been silent.”

A Cheney source said: “Not only does President Obama disagree with the policy, he goes out of his way to attack us. The notion that we shouldn't publicly defend our record, and tell the American people the truth, makes no sense."

Karl Rove, Bush's former senior adviser, replied: “I know President Bush and Vice President Cheney talk with regularity. I know the former president appreciates Dick’s forthright defense of the administration’s polices. And I know Vice President Cheney understands the special role that the former president occupies. Others who are quoted as commenting in the article appear to settling old interoffice scores without a real knowledge of the relationship between the two.”

Battleground Virginia

A person familiar with Bush’s thinking said that as a member of the former president’s club, he believes he should stay on the sidelines. The person added that Bush’s views on national-security issues are well-known.

But a former White House official under Bush said some White House alumni wish Cheney would cool it.

“We all sort of feel the same way: It’s his right to do it,” the former official said. “We don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea.

The former official said the difference in approach reflects “a division that stretches back pretty far.”

“There were a lot of differences of opinion” when the two were in the White House, the former official said. “The president prevailed, because he was president. The vice president sat back and was dutiful and loyal. But that is a different situation than you have now.”

Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush had always said that whenever he became an ex-president — whether in 2005 or 2009 — “he was going to exit the stage.”

“He took that out of the pages of history, based on how he had seen other ex-presidents treat their successors,” Perino said.

Perino said Cheney’s situation was “a little bit different” than Bush’s because he is not a former president, and because he “has been so viciously attacked across the board by the Democrats.”

Welli t is pretty obvous that it was Cheny who was behind the whole torture scene. Bush is at least showing some respect. Cheney represnts the worst in the republican party. I'm waiting for Cheney's tounge to slither out the side of his ominous smile and snap up a fly,

Great talking points, lolwut. I bet you've repeated them daily since the Iraq War. Bush could not go to war without the confirmation from BOTH parties to do so. Bush refused to fight back against the most diabolical propaganda attacks ever perpetuated against any politician in history. Why would he fight back now? The brainwashing that the democrats have done since 2000 have got the lemmings frothing at the mouth. Josph Goebells would be proud of how this has unfolded.